Apparently stung by reports that the inaugural turnout for President Donald Trump was smaller than in recent years, the Trump administration held a press conference on Saturday evening in which newly minted Press Secretary Sean Spicer angrily insisted Friday’s crowd was “the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period.”

“This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period,” Trump White House press secretary claims https://t.co/ICcog0Ivxt

While a definitive crowd size figure is hard to come by, current estimates hover at around 250,000 attendees, a number that was dwarfed on Saturday by the number of protesters attending the Women’s March on Washington. Social media users responded with a mixture of scorn and disbelief that one of Spicer’s first major press appearances would be to float such an easily disproven lie and then refuse to take questions.

@ChuckWendig “Mister Spicer, that duck appears to be made of yellow plastic.”

About the Author

David Ferguson is an editor at Raw Story. He was previously writer and radio producer in Athens, Georgia, hosting two shows for Georgia Public Broadcasting and blogging at Firedoglake.com and elsewhere. He is currently working on a book.